Traveling north or south near Saluda on Route 17 in rural Virginia, you can’t miss the sign in the yard. Measuring a generous eight feet tall by 20 feet long, a white plywood background with blue 3-d lettering, it’s just four words: Charlie Carter Cleans Chimneys.

As a former chimney sweep I have kept track of Charlie over the years. Charlie’s sign has been in his front yard (you’ve got to love the local zoning laws) for over 30 years. Charlie Carter was a brand before branding was cool. There is no phone number. Everything you need is there. At 55 mph (you can’t really go faster in front of his house because the road makes a sweeping bend as you pass the driveway) you know who he is and what he does.

Curious if Charlie has kept up with the times, I Goggled “Charlie Carter Cleans Chimneys.” Guess what I found?

Charlie comes up as 1 – 10 on the first page. All with just four words.

Think about what you can do for your company in four words. Is your marketing this precise? Is your business this focused? Most people cannot describe what they do in four minutes, yet Charlie has done it in four words.

The same holds true in a job search. Can you share your Brand, your Value Statement (the answer to why should I hire you) in the equivalent of six tweets or less? Six 140 character sentences is about the length of an elevator pitch. If you can’t get someone’s attention during the elevator ride up, you should stay in the lobby.

Charlie has inspired me to once examine my brand, to challenge myself to say more with less. I encourage you to do the same. It has certainly paid off for Charlie.

Traveling to Yorktown, Virginia from New Jersey, I cross the Potomac River on Route 301. Three miles from the river, at the top of a rather steep hill, is a furniture and carpet shop. The shop has been in business for decades. I’ve been driving this road for 21 years, but the store never stood out in my mind until….

On a recent trip, I saw a giant chair in front of the store. I had a flashback to Lily Tomlin and a character she developed that sat in a humongous rocker. Now, as I cross the bridge into Virginia from Maryland, I am anticipating the chair.

I might have the radio on but I’m concentrating on the road as the two lane Potomac River Bridge is very narrow and Route 301 is a major tractor-trailer highway. Then, out of the blue, a vision of the chair flashes in my mind. I think, “is it still there”? As I drive up that steep hill from the riverbed area up onto the rolling hills, I spot the chair at the front of the parking lot.

I don’t think I will ever drive this section of highway without thinking about this chair. Thinking BIG paid off for this business. I certainly remember them.

Everyone should think big. In business, stores don’t take 75 cents off a $300 TV, they slash prices to the bone! As a candidate for a job, you don’t say you can do slightly better than the next guy, you spell out the tremendous skills you have and then share stories that highlight those skills. As a parent, you don’t encourage children to be average, but to reach for the stars, to follow their dreams. Even in our personal relationships, there’s a place for thinking big.

If you are ever on Route 301 in Virginia, between the Potomac River Bridge and where Route 3 crosses it leading into Fredericksburg, look for the chair. And when you are going to do something, choose to do it BIG. Big gets remembered!

“Job hunting is a delicate balance between pride, desperation and humiliation.” Amy Crabtree

Here are three ways to cope:

Don’t stop- You may have found a lead to the best job on the planet and you’re sure after the telephone interview that next week will be it because they scheduled an interview. Now you have six days to kill until the interview, so you start thinking why should I keep looking, this job is in the bag. Instead of stopping your job search, pause for a few minutes, write down everything you remember from the phone interview, especially things that got a positive response and then keep searching. It doesn’t matter if this job works out, you have many more coming. Don’t stop until you are in a new hire orientation

Don’t marry the company - I’ve said many times before, you can end up on an emotional roller coaster if you play the “I’ve got to have this job, it’s perfect” game. All jobs have perks, benefits and all jobs have drawbacks. Make sure you are painting a realistic picture of the company; you may decide after the first interview that you don’t like their culture. Be open about the company and realistic about what they are offering and your stress will be less.

Don’t think traditional – With all of the competition for jobs today, standing out is imperative. In the end, it’s about getting the attention of the company you want to work for. Within the corporate culture of the industry and workplace you are targeting, you need to tell your story. Share your personal brand with specific stories that give the interviewer a reason to remember you.

Amy caught the spirit of the problem. “Job hunting is a delicate balance between pride, desperation and humiliation.” Don’t be so proud that you stop searching because “they would be nut’s not to hire you”. Don’t be so desperate that you take the first thing that comes along, without making sure it is a good fit for you. And don’t worry about being embarrassed when you market yourself in a memorable way. It may end up being the talk of your first company picnic.

The reporter said yesterday that the annual Mardi Gras Celebration in New Orleans generates over 500 million dollars in revenue for the local economy. What if you could create your own Mardi Gras event for your business? Create world-wide recognition of the event just by saying the name? Have people the world over mark your event on their calendars, search on-line for details and ultimately be at your event, just so they could say they were there? What impact would that have on your business, your non-profit, your town, city or state?

Now I can already hear the nay-sayers going “I’ll never be able to create global excitement like Mardi Gras”. And maybe your ad budget isn’t in the millions and maybe you don’t have hundreds of years of history (The starting date of festivities in New Orleans is unknown. An account from 1743 notes that the custom of Carnival balls was already established. Processions and wearing of masks in the streets on Mardi Gras took place. Thank you Wikipedia.) To create your own Mardi Gras, you need three things.

1. Tradition -There are great traditions that generate income. My town of Lakewood, New Jersey holds a concert in the band shell on the 4th of July followed by fireworks from a barge on the lake. Hundreds of merchants and enterprising entrepreneurs benefit from the annual event. One of the keys to creating your own Mardi Gras in consistency. I have been in New Jersey 21 years and the town was holding this event at least 25 years before I got here.

2. Size – It must be big enough based on your situation to inspire people to action; The largest state fair east of the Rockies, the largest collection of antique cars ever assembled in Detroit, or Uncle Buster’s Annual Special Soup Cellar Collection Event, Main Street, USA

3. Economic benefit – You must decide on your ROI. How will you measure success? ( In 1833 Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, a rich plantation owner of French descent, raised money to fund an official Mardi Gras celebration. Again, thank you Wikipedia) If your event generates sales, new customers or adds to your Brand, you may have a winner

So as you decide what to wear (or not to wear) for today’s Mardi Gras Parade, spend a few minutes thinking about how you can start or build on something you do. How can you create an annual tradition that will create excitement, generate revenue and create a loyal following? When it becomes big enough, they may write about it in Wikipedia.